Pizzzzzza!

Around the end of 2021 or maybe the beginning of 2022 I think I saw a video or something on social media where someone made a pizza using a cast iron pan. I thought, hey I recently got a 12″ cast iron pan, I’ll get a pizza dough at Trader Joe’s and try it out. This was the first cast iron pizza I ever made, in January 2022; it was delicious:

an uncut pizza on a wood board with the toppings listed in the caption — mushrooms (sautéed in the pan first), sliced garlic (put on the pizza raw), two kinds of mozzarella, fake pepperoni (put on the pan in oil briefly hoping that would help it get crispier which I think worked), and olives on my half only, then fresh basil added at the end

Six months later, I was attempting to make my own dough, and we were having weekly homemade pizza nights almost every week! I spent nearly a year trying different dough recipes and variations, making tiny adjustments each time and writing everything down, with the goal of perfecting my dough recipe.

closeup of an uncut pizza with the toppings listed in the caption plus lots of cheese — shishito peppers, black olives, mushrooms, and a little pineapple

Around the spring of this year, I felt pretty good about it, and I created a little mini-zine recipe book so others can use it too! The printable, foldable zine is available for free download in my free payhip “shop” here, but below are all the pages for you to read right here on the blog. Scroll to the bottom for some process photos too.

hand holding folded zine with cover saying "make cast iron pan pizza!" in handlettering, with a drawing of a pan with stream lines coming up from it — the printed & folded pizza-making zine

The recipe makes two dough balls, which are two good size servings each (a 10–12” pizza); if you only need to make one pizza at a time, the second ball can be frozen for later. You can make the dough a few days before you plan to eat pizza, then making the pizza is pretty quick and easy! I usually make dough every other Sunday night, so it’s ready on Thursday, and I put the second ball in the freezer and have that one on the following Thursday! For the pizza, you’ll need a cast iron pan, ideally 12”, but 10” should work for a thicker crust. You can use All Purpose flour or Bread flour—both work well, but bread flour will result in a slightly more chewy crust, and AP will be a bit lighter/airier, so choose which you like better, or try out both options! A little Whole Wheat flour is recommended for flavor & texture, but keep it to only around 10% of the total flour (approx 30g). A scale is highly recommended for measuring the flour and water accurately. 310 grams flour (approx 2.5 cups) 1 3/4 tsp salt 1 1/4 tsp sugar 1/4 tsp yeast (active dry or quick-rise/instant) Mix above ingredients in a large bowl, then add: 211 grams warm water (7/8 cup)—to be safe, weigh out the amount first then add to bowl—NOT hot, just a little warmer than room temp; if using quick-rise yeast then room temp is fine 1 TBSP olive oil Mix with a wooden spoon (or similar tool) in a large bowl until there’s no more dry flour—you may want to switch to using your hands to get it fully mixed. Then cover and let sit 10 minutes. — pages 1-2 of the pizza making zine, instructions for mixing your dough ingredients

Knead briefly with your hands, just to get it all fully mixed; now it shouldn’t be as sticky. Cover bowl and let sit overnight, or 8–12 hours, at room temperature. Dough should be double (or more) in size now. If it’s not doubled (ish) and the room is cold, it may need more time. Divide in half (use scale to get perfect halves, or just estimate). Get two containers ready—plastic tubs with lids, sized to fit a dough ball with plenty room for it to rise (large yogurt type containers work great). Drip a little olive oil into the bottom of each. For each ball, make into a tight dough ball using this method: fold dough in half by bringing the top and bottom up to meet in the center, then with the seam up (where the two halves met) turn dough 90 degrees and fold in half again. Repeat that 4 or more times, turning and folding up to the same side, so the other side is becoming a smooth ball. After the last fold, hold the seam together, grab the two ends, and fold them into the center, so the other side is a round ball. Here’s a video if you’d like some visual help: youtu.be/oZxNbL5XB7w Place dough ball with the gathered seam side down in container. Place the containers with the dough balls in the fridge for up to 7 days (3–5 is ideal). If freezing, allow to cold ferment first (that just means sit in the fridge) for 3–5 days, then move the container to the freezer. — pages 3-4 of the pizza making zine, instructions for kneading, balling, and cold fermenting

On the day you’ll use the dough ball, take it out of the fridge about 2 hours before using (or 3–5 hours if it was frozen). Let sit in container on the counter for 30–60 minutes first, then put a little olive oil on work surface (like a large cutting board), place dough ball on it, and cover with a damp towel or upside-down large bowl. Let rest until ready to use. Move oven rack to highest position. Preheat oven to 550°F/290°C (or highest possible temp) and heat large cast iron pan on stove as follows. If cooking any toppings (meat, mushrooms, etc), heat pan to appropriate temp (medium or medium-high), add olive oil and cook. Then remove toppings and keep surface coated with a little oil. If not pre-cooking toppings, then heat pan to medium and coat with a little olive oil. Turn pan heat down to low or medium-low heat. Stretch dough to pan size by pushing out into pizza shape on work surface, focusing the pulling around the edges so the center doesn’t get too thin, then pick it up and stretch it more, tossing it back and forth in your hands and/or rotating it around until the size is approx the size of your pan. (There are lots of videos on youtube for visual help!) Place dough into hot pan—this it tricky and you’ll probably need to adjust in the pan. It’s fine if it’s not perfect! If any holes rip, cover with dough. Sprinkle a little salt onto dough then add sauce, cheese, and toppings. No rush adding stuff—during this time, the bottom is pre-cooking a bit, to help get a crispy bottom, so it’s good for it to take several minutes. — pages 5-6 of the pizza making zine, instructions for using the dough

Once pizza is topped and oven is preheated, bake for 7–10 minutes on top rack, then turn oven to broiler setting for 1–2 more minutes (try 1 minute first—some ovens will burn if you give it longer than a minute!). Your times may need adjusting to achieve pizza perfection. Take out of oven and top with anything that didn’t need to be cooked (fresh basil, parmesan, etc). Let sit for a minute, then transfer from the pan to a cutting board by grabbing the pizza with tongs and sliding it onto the board. Let rest for another minute then cut and enjoy! — last page of pizza zine, instructions for baking pizza

The zine includes brief cooking instructions, but I’ll also point to you to this Bon Appétit video which is basically the method I use, first using the cast-iron pan to cook toppings (like mushrooms, peppers, and fake meat), to pre-heat the pan and get it coated with flavored olive oil, before using it for the pizza. Another very helpful youtube video is this one that’s mentioned in the zine, for balling your dough.

a cut pizza on a wood board with the toppings listed in the caption plus lots of cheese — mushrooms, broccoli, cashews, and red sauce

Of course there are lots of great reasons to make your own delicious pizza at home (save money, don’t have to leave the house, pizza night is fun and a great way to end the work week, you can make choices based on allergies/sensitivities/limitations/healthfulness) but my personal favorite reason is toppings!

an uncut pizza in a black cast iron pan with the toppings listed in the caption — pear and gorgonzola with olive oil, mozzarella, and fresh lemon thyme sprinkled on top after baking

I love experimenting with different topping combinations, using ingredients from my garden when possible (or my friend’s feral orchard or local farms, etc), and using things like fake meats that are uncommon at restaurants.

an uncut pizza in a black cast iron pan with the toppings listed in the caption plus lots of cheese — crumbled up Field Roast fake Italian sausage (to make it more like classic pizza sausage), red bell peppers, mushrooms, a little roasted squash from the freezer stash, and a little kale, with homemade pomodoro sauce I made and froze

This blog post features a huge assortment of successful pizzas from the last 2-ish years. I do occasionally make not-so-successful pies, like the time I tried to make a taco pizza by using salsa as the sauce. That one wasn’t good, mostly texturally, but the taco pizza using queso as the sauce was VERY good!

three pizza slices on a plate with toppings listed in caption — leftover homemade gochujang queso as the sauce, potatoes, fake chorizo, peppers, a little salsa, cherry tomatoes, and fresh cilantro added after baking

One of my absolute most favorite topping combos I’ve discovered is some kind of roasted winter squash + some kind of fake sausage (or bacon works too), and it works great with pesto as the sauce, or olive oil & garlic, or red sauce. Fresh basil and good quality parmesan makes is extra amazing.

So, all the photos have the toppings listed in their captions. Some of the pizzas are older so the crust may be from a store-bought dough or a different dough recipe. Every topping combination I’m posting here is one that I liked and would recommend copying, even the ones that seem weird!

closeup of a cut pizza with the toppings listed in the caption plus lots of cheese — broccoli, cashews, pomodoro sauce, and I threw on the carrots that simmered in the sauce as well as the parmesan rind cut into small bits, which was a real winning ingredient!

And hey, if you do eat meat, you might want to consider trying out fake meat on your pizza — when it’s combined with all the other elements, especially if it’s not really the star of the pizza but just an extra bonus flavor, you probably won’t even know it’s fake. I fed my midwest-raised meat-loving parents a fake sausage & squash pizza and they claimed to love it! Field Roast makes great sausages, in the refrigerated section of most grocery stores; unfortunately they’ve gotten more pricey lately (as so many things have) but 4 big sausages are plenty for 4 pizzas so it’s not toooo bad, and the cut, cooked sausage freezes well for future pizzas.

closeup of an uncut pizza with the toppings listed in the caption — fake bacon, pepperoni, and sausage, shishito peppers, tomatoes on my half only, mozzarella, Gorgonzola, and (jarred) vodka sauce

Oh that reminds me of another thing. First, the recipe makes 2 pizzas worth of dough, and it freezes well, so I always make a batch and one gets used that week, and the second gets frozen for the next week (or whenever). And I use the freezer for toppings a lot too! I’ll usually cook double or triple the sausage I need for a pizza, and the rest goes in the freezer; I’ll often do that with mushrooms, peppers, squash, and other things. That way, on a night when I have less time, all I need to do is take the toppings (and dough, if it’s frozen) out of the freezer awhile before pizza-making time, and everything is ready to go!

three pizza slices on a plate with toppings listed in caption plus lots of cheese — fake sausage, summer squash from the freezer from when I cooked up extra when it was in season and froze a couple of pizza’s worth, and a jalapeño

Okay I’m just going to post a bunch more pizzas with different toppings now… keep scrolling for more instructional content at the bottom…

an uncut pizza on a white cutting board with the toppings listed in the caption plus lots of cheese — homemade red sauce with canned lentils mixed in to make a fake meat sauce, topped with mushrooms, jalapenos, and kale

This one was made with fancy birthday-present ingredients from one of our favorite local pizza spots!!

an uncut pizza in a black cast iron pan with the toppings listed in the caption plus lots of cheese, and part of the lid of the Scottie's sauce container — beech mushrooms, fake sausage, and garlic, using fancy dough and sauce from Scottie’s Pizza Parlor

And here’s a calzone made with my dough, not nearly as photogenic as pizza but a fun variation and also delicious!

an uncut calzone on a glass plate — calzone with kale and radicchio sauteed with garlic, plus fake meat, pesto, and cheese — not so pretty but delicious!

As a bonus, below is a cast iron pan baked pasta — I used the method in this video to toast the dry pasta, cook everything as one-pan pasta in the cast-iron pan, then bake the whole thing in the pan, works so well! This one has mushrooms and fake sausage, and I think some kale or other green thing; I’ve also made this with that winter squash + sausage combo, which works just as well with pasta as it does with pizza, unsurprisingly. Sooo good!

baked rigatoni pasta covered in bubbly baked cheese, in a cast iron pan — baked rigatoni with mushrooms and fake sausage, covered in baked cheese

And now, some pizza-making process photos (and a “what not to do” example)…

measuring out the flour on a scale

bowl with dense dough ball inside — after kneading and forming ball, ready to sit at room temperature for 8-12 hours

bubbly big dough in the same bowl — dough after sitting 8-12 hours

two tight dough balls sitting at the bottoms of plastic yogurt containers — dough divided into two balls, each balled tightly and sitting at the bottom of a plastic yogurt container, with lots of empty space above

2 containers of bubbling dough up near the tops of the plastic yogurt containers — dough balls after sitting in the fridge for a day or two

The zine instructs you to let the dough sit out at least a couple of hours before making your pizza. Sometimes when I’m using a frozen dough ball, I’ll take it out of the freezer several hours early, and leave it sitting on the counter in the container, then forget to move it from the container to the cutting board an hour or so before using… a couple nights ago I did this, I moved it from the container to the board basically when I wanted to use it. I let it sit for only about 10 minutes instead of an hour+. The result is that the dough has a hard time stretching to pizza size; it rips in the middle, and it just won’t stretch to full size. I took bits of dough from the edges to patch the holes, and we just had a small pizza. The crust also doesn’t rise as much. So don’t be like me, let your dough rest before using!!

pizza dough stretched in cast iron pan, with some rips patched up by torn off pieces of dough — dough stretched badly in the pan with some patched-up rips, a cautionary image

The pizza was still delicious, just not quite as delicious as it would’ve been if I’d followed my own instructions!

If you like seeing my toppings, I usually post my pizzas in my instagram stories, and there’s a pizza story highlight on my page. I’d LOVE to see your pizzas, so it would be awesome if you wanted to tag me on instagram, or comment here. Always up for new topping ideas too!! Happy pizza making & eating!

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